Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: November 2025 (Patreon)

Alan:

Hello Heroes!

What I’m reading!

Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway. Honestly, I thought there would be more research information in this book that is essentially a memoir, with some loosely tossed in information about the Male Crisis in our modern world. There’s interesting stuff in there, and the stories are well told, but it’s not quite what I was expecting.

That’s the only book this month. November was busy. But December, I’ve got a ton on my list. Cozy season!

What I’m watching!

The Running Man was a huge disappointment, to people who expect transcendent perfection from every Edgar Wright movie. This was a bit shaggy, but still a ton of fun. I liked it a lot. Will certainly watch it again.

The Predator - The Shane Black, 2018, autism-is-a-superpower one. I'd never seen this before. It had problems, but I enjoyed myself overall. Predator is such a weird franchise. One masterpiece and a lot of "Huh, that was a movie." This was one of those.

Die Hard with a Vengeance. I saw this once, on TV, in the late '90s. And I remember thinking it was pretty good. I was wrong. This is GREAT. Super fun movie top to bottom with a fairly weak final 90 seconds. But right up until that point, it's a classic. For the first hour, it's possibly a masterpiece. This is going into the rotation for me.

What I’m playing!

The Thing. This is considered canon by none other than John Carpenter himself! I played a bit of it when it first came out a long, long time ago. But it’s remastered, and I just got a Steam Deck, so yeah. Diving back into a lot of old games with that thing.

Thronefall. I played this on Mac during early release, but now I’m getting back into it. This Steam Deck purchase may have been a terrible idea. Or a great idea.

Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)

Jono:

Hello all! How is November treating you?I've caught some great films in theaters so far. Wicked: For Good had a more interesting story to me than the first film, but the trade-off was the music on the whole wasn't quite as iconic ("No Good Deed Goes Unpunished" and "For Good" being major exceptions). I appreciated the tighter pacing this time out and all the performances, the direction, the production design, etc. were all excellent. Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are straight-up queens.Alan and I went to see The Running Man and you know what? It was better than its reviews suggest. Uneven, oddly-paced, and about 15 minutes too long BUT we both laughed a lot, Glenn Powell is giving big damn movie star energy, Michael Cera steals the show in his extended cameo, and Edgar Wright can direct the hell out of a movie.At the time of this writing (earlier than usual because the CT team will be on break for Thanksgiving), I still plan on catching Rental Family, Eternity, and Zootopia 2 in theaters this month!I bought a three-book hardover combined Indiana Jones trilogy from Barnes and Noble that I'm excited to dive into over the break. Excited to see how Indy's adventures translate into novels and to be even more immersed in his world.Happy (US) Thanksgiving! If you've got time off, are you reading and watching anything? Any book or movie holiday traditions?